April 24, 2017

WORKING FOR GOD

Tobit 12:8-9

Prayer is good with fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A few prayers with righteousness are better than many with wrongdoing. It is better to do almsgiving than to lay up gold. For almsgiving rescues one from death, and it will wash away every sin. Those who do almsgiving and are righteous will be full of life.

Personal Challenge

It is so easy for me to get focused on those things that are considered acts of worship and neglect the things that God asks me to do. Things like prayer time, bible reading and study time, sitting through liturgy, and the list goes on. Tobit reminds us that while these things are still good, they do not truly deepen our relationship with our Lord unless they are coupled with fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. Our modern Christian faith practices have stripped our Christian journey of these acts because we fear that people will get hung up on works. We know and teach in our Orthodox faith practice that we will never earn favor with God by our works. We know that there is nothing that we can do to earn our way into His family. Actually, we believe that we deserve nothing from our God. However, if I want to experience God's grace, love, and mercy to the fullest extent then I must be fully investing of myself in His work, His labors. This is where fasting, almsgiving, and righteous acts give us our opportunities to grow in His image the most, Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!